It is never a good sign when George Soros' name is back in the headlines. The Hungarian-born hedge-fund billionaire has become a touchstone of controversy. Both Republicans and Democrats in Virginia are taking his name in vain this week as the off-year election for governor, as well as various other state and local positions, has become a battleground in an unexpectedly tight race. Each side in the tribal culture war that characterizes contemporary American political discourse views him as a symbol that can help rally support to them.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Virginian Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, are denouncing their opponents who are beneficiaries of donations from Soros' foundations and related political action funds as leftist pawns of a malign influence on American life. In response, Democrats are not only responding by saying that the charge is out of bounds but are using it to convince Jewish voters that the GOP is antisemitic.

While he is a figure whose stands and conduct are worth debating, the argument about Soros has become bigger than just one about him. By claiming that the very mention of his name is evidence of prejudice, Democrats who link all criticism of the billionaire to Jew-hatred aren't just wrong. They are all undermining the struggle against antisemitism at a time when just about everyone agrees that it is on the rise.

That a Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust would loom so large over the worlds of high finance and politics is an unlikely story. A man of immense talent and ambition, he parlayed his skill at speculation into an enormous fortune utilizing both his grasp of economics and a gambler's luck. But having acquired great wealth, he decided that his real calling was in using it to support the causes he believed in.

Soros' massive donations to various charities, activist groups, political causes and candidates have earned him the title of the "most generous giver" in Forbes magazine's annual ranking of billionaires. He doesn't rank very high on that list these days with only a paltry $8.6 billion to his name. That's because he has given away the majority of his original fortune to various nonprofits with most of it (reportedly $32 billion) going to his own Open Society Foundations.

Much of his foundation's work in its early years when it was funding efforts to promote dissent against Communist tyranny in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe was laudable. But Open Society has since then branched out into other causes that are far less defensible.

For example, in 2010, it gave $100 million of Soros' money to Human Rights Watch. But by that time, the group had long since become a bastion of hard-left intersectionalism, devoting most of its energy to causes like demonizing and delegitimizing Israel, which it falsely accuses of being an "apartheid state." Open Society is also a major funder of a host of Palestinian and other groups that smear the Jewish state and support the antisemitic BDS movement. He was also the major initial funder of the left-wing J Street lobby that is highly critical of Israel though, at his request, the group kept this a secret for several years.

But Soros is more than just a donor to international left-wing causes. He's one of the largest donors to Democratic candidates in the United States. Rather than just concentrating on backing a presidential candidate or other major players, Soros and his Open Society crew have taken a far more clever approach to ensure that their preferred policies are enacted. For example, in the last six years, Open Society-created funds have prioritized overhauling the criminal justice system. It has played a central role in the election of left-wing district attorneys from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and San Francisco who have downgraded prosecutions of criminals in favor of policies that have made those cities far less safe for law-abiding citizens.

The wide influence Soros has exerted on US politics and society is sometimes exaggerated by his critics, such as those who wrongly asserted that he funded all Black Lives Matter protests and riots. But it is also true that Open Society money can be found in many places, including backing groups who support the BLM movement – either first or secondhand – and any mention of its efforts in an amazing number of controversies, causes and election battles is often unavoidable.

While Soros' influence may be lamentable, there is nothing really underhanded or illegal about it. Nor ought his efforts be banned. He has the same right to use his money to fund political speech as conservative donors or anyone else in a country that values its First Amendment rights.

It is true that talk of shadowy rich Jews manipulating the affairs of nations across the globe is a traditional trope of antisemitic invective. But what those who say that attacking Soros' influence is evidence of anti-Jewish prejudice are forgetting is that while it was a myth that the Rothschilds and other wealthy Jews were secretly running the world, Soros and Open Society are involved in trying to impact the way a lot of countries are run.

Some of those who have attacked Soros as an international financier have done so in an antisemitic manner. The same is true of the invective still hurled at him in his native Hungary. To be fair, however, Soros' record as a currency speculator has earned him some justified resentment from those who had to pay the price of his big scores. For example, his 1992 bet against the British pound sterling earned him a cool 1 billion pounds in profit while costing the taxpayers of the United Kingdom 3.4 billion pounds. Similarly, his selling local currencies short in Malaysia and Thailand set off the 1997 financial crisis in Southeast Asia giving further ammunition to antisemitic forces in the region.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

Some far-right extremists may use Soros to promote their brand of Jew-hatred. And the Republican Party has some problematic members of its own. But the notion that a man who has been investing unprecedented amounts of money in political races across America to promote a brand of left-wing politics must be considered off-limits for criticism is as absurd as it is cynical.

It's also deeply hypocritical for Democrats to play this card in this way. They have their own antisemitism problem in the form of an increasingly loud and influential left-wing faction whose embrace of intersectional ideology has helped fuel the demonization of Israel and the legitimization of attacks on American Jews. The Democratic leadership, including President Joe Biden, continues to court rather than condemn open antisemites like Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and the growing number of so-called "progressives" in the House. So for people like Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff to be trotted out as a Democratic Jewish surrogate in Virginia – someone who has never previously been a voice on behalf of Jewish causes or pro-Israel advocacy – in order to label Youngkin as an antisemite is not only outrageous but undermines the credibility of their attempts to stand up against Jew-hatred and renders national unity on the issue impossible.

I have previously noted how partisanship has led to a situation where both sides of the partisan divide find it easy to accuse those that can be linked to their political foes of antisemitism while refusing to be honest about the haters that are their allies. What the Democrats are doing in Virginia isn't just an example of this lamentable trend; it is evidence of how doing so has made the discussion merely an excuse for peddling partisan talking points. Those who play this game are damaging the effort to combat antisemitism, not aiding it. It is long past time for them to give up this discreditable ploy.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS – Jewish News Syndicate. 

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Calling critics of Soros antisemitic undermines fight against Jew-hatred appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The organization said it was no longer possible to work in Turkey after it became the target of "baseless claims" in the media and a renewed investigation by Turkish authorities into mass protests against Erdogan's government five years ago.

It said the Turkish Interior Ministry was renewing attempts to prove that the Soros foundation was behind the 2013 Gezi Park protests, one of the biggest political challenges to Erdogan's 15-year rule. The foundation denied any link to the protests.

Erdogan denounced Soros last week while speaking of the detention of 13 activists and academics accused of supporting attempts by jailed businessman and rights advocate Osman Kavala to revive the Gezi protests.

"The person [Kavala] who financed terrorists during the Gezi incidents is already in prison," Erdogan told a meeting of local administrators on Wednesday.

"And who is behind him? The famous Hungarian Jew Soros. This is a man who assigns people to divide nations and shatter them. He has so much money and he spends it this way."

One of the 13 people detained on Nov. 16 was Hakin Altinay, who helped establish the Open Society Foundation in Turkey. Others were staff members of Kavala's Anadolu Kultur center, which campaigns for human rights and cultural diversity.

All but one of the detainees were later released, but not before the European Union and United States expressed concern about their cases.

Ankara's Western allies have repeatedly criticized the arrest of tens of thousands of people since a failed military coup in Turkey in July 2016.

Kavala, in detention for more than a year, said in a statement posted on his website Monday that he was still waiting for an indictment to be prepared so that he could prove that the claims he had helped to direct and finance the Gezi protests and wanted to overthrow the government were "unfounded."

The pro-government Sabah newspaper, citing reports from financial crime investigators, said on Monday Open Society Foundations had made financial transfers to Kavala's organization to support the spread of the Gezi protests nationwide.

It said nearly 1.9 million lira ($363,000) had been transferred between August 2011 and April 2017.

The foundation said it informed the Turkish authorities every year about which institutions and projects had received donations, and the authorities had approved them.

"However, with the new investigations that have been opened, it is seen that there is an effort to link the Open Society Foundations to the Gezi incidents in 2013. These efforts are not new and they are outside reality," it said.

The foundation said it would apply for legal liquidation and shut the company's operations as soon as possible.

"The increase of baseless claims and disproportionate speculation in the media in recent days has made it impossible for the foundation to continue its operations."

Soros and his Open Society Foundations have also come under fire in Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused Soros and the liberal groups he backs of trying to undermine Europe's Christian culture by promoting mass migration, a charge the financier denies.

The post Under attack by Erdogan, Soros foundation to leave Turkey appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.